Wiener-Dog
IFC Films | Release Date: June 24, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
11
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
IndieWireEric KohnJan 31, 2016
Bizarre and challenging when it's not outright goofy, Wiener-Dog never feels remotely compromised. Somehow hilarious and gloomy at the same time, it represents a big middle finger to anyone who wishes Solondz would lighten up. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonJul 7, 2016
Looking for a feel-good movie? Fortunately, this film doesn’t qualify. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniJul 1, 2016
Wiener-Dog has a satirical edge as sharp as any Solondz has fashioned, but it is also filled with disarming moments of absurdist humor. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyJun 24, 2016
With all its humor (and there is a ton), Wiener-Dog, following the journey of a dachshund as it is shuffled from owner to owner, is one of Solondz's sharpest visions of futility. Read full review
85
TheWrapDave WhiteJul 17, 2016
An atheist’s inverse Balthazar, Wiener-Dog witnesses and experiences suffering but cannot transform that pain into anything substantive, nor can she redeem those around her. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 10, 2016
It's good to know Solondz hasn't lost his ability to shock, or his indifference to anyone thinking he goes too far. Wiener-Dog is gentler material than usual for him, sweet, even goofy at times, yet no comfier than a sandpaper hug. Read full review
83
The Film StageJordan RaupJan 31, 2016
With Wiener-Dog, Solondz is perhaps at his most evidently candid, showing all the different, damaged people that can enter and exit one’s life, and what our mutually shared, inevitable destination will be. Read full review
80
CineVueTom DugginsAug 11, 2016
Throughout, Solondz never allows a situation to get too serious. Something clownish or ludicrous is always peeking round the corner. At times, as with the very finale of the film, this works brilliantly: generating something darkly hilarious and cutely uncomfortable. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJun 24, 2016
I loved it, but you might not. Despite its often prostrating bleakness and an ending likely to inspire howls of outrage (Solondz’s world is not kind to children or pets), it might be the closest he’ll ever come to making an inspirational work. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfFeb 1, 2016
En route to the harshest, most unremittingly bleak film of his career, Solondz unleashes some of his sharpest commentary on human mortality and regret. Read full review
80
The GuardianNigel M SmithJan 31, 2016
Wiener-Dog doesn’t find Solondz going light to deliver an inspirational medley. Instead, he’s created arguably his most caustic film since Happiness. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJul 7, 2016
Overly sensitive pet owners, however, would be advised to take a walk. Read full review
75
Boston GlobePeter KeoughJun 29, 2016
As he gets older, Todd Solondz outgrows the cheap shocks and easy nihilism and stumbles toward a mellow misanthropy. He compares his new film Wiener-Dog to “Au Hasard Balthazar” (1966) and “Benji” (1974), though it tends more toward the latter than toward Robert Bresson’s masterpiece. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisJun 29, 2016
At the end of the day, Wiener-Dog seems to be saying that life is mundane, then you die. It’s not the stuff of Hallmark cards, but Solondz has a way of making it palatable. Read full review
75
ConsequenceMichael RoffmanJan 31, 2016
You’ll laugh, you’ll cringe, you’ll wince, and you’ll sigh. Such is the genius of Wiener-Dog, and of Solondz, and why he remains a reliable visionary. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJun 23, 2016
The juxtaposition of formal beauty and surpassing human ugliness is hardly the least of “Wiener-Dog’s” numerous internal contradictions, some of which are more resolvable than others. Read full review
70
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganFeb 1, 2016
Solondz’s latest is morose and jaundiced and, although uneven, a relentlessly clever little film. Read full review
70
VarietyGuy LodgeFeb 1, 2016
This elegantly wrought oddity appears at the halfway mark to be heading into uncharacteristically hopeful territory for Solondz — until a toe-tapping intermission marks a reassuring plunge into abject despair. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisJun 29, 2016
In the end, trying to compartmentalize this movie in some neat fashion is folly. This is Todd Solondz and, refreshingly enough, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJun 24, 2016
The mordancy of this movie will not surprise Solondz devotees, but unknowing audiences expecting a raunchy teen comedy from the film’s title should be forewarned. This is not “American Pie” in a kennel. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jun 22, 2016
Wiener-Dog’s laughs are typically sour, but the filmmaker hasn’t landed this many of them since "Storytelling," his last multipart feature. Read full review
67
The PlaylistNoel MurrayFeb 1, 2016
What saves the movie is Solondz’s sensibility, which is still one-of-a-kind. Read full review
63
Washington PostStephanie MerryJun 30, 2016
You wouldn’t exactly call the movie a thrill, but it’s curiously engrossing all the same. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsAllen SalkinOct 6, 2020
There will be movie-goers who enjoy the misery of it all. They may even laugh. I couldn't. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyAug 11, 2016
This prodding, acidic, bumpy-but-worthwhile movie is about even the world’s consenting creatures winding up with nothing they really wanted, while a dog submits to human will just to make us feel like we’re the ones in charge. Read full review
60
EmpireOlly RichardsAug 1, 2016
This is a gentler, less confrontational Solondz. It makes you laugh, but probably won’t leave you reeling after. Some fans of his might consider that a disappointment, others might find it a relief. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghJul 7, 2016
It’s a variation on a theme that Solondz has been working through his whole filmography, and when he’s successful, he convinces you to believe the worst in people and laugh at it. But when he’s not, the film can feel like punishment. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJun 23, 2016
Mr. Solondz’s eye for the petty hypocrisies and delusions of American life has lost some of its sharpness, and he flails at flabby targets — avant-garde art, campus “political correctness” — in ways that sometimes carry an ugly whiff of racial and sexual bigotry. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJun 20, 2016
The joke is that Wiener-Dog is about as non-epic as can be, but there’s also a sleight of hand, with the dazzle of the images distracting us from the fact that the movie has run out of plot. Meanwhile, the depths of doghood remain unplumbed. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJan 31, 2016
Life may be as unfair and arbitrary as Solondz portrays it, but it is arguably more diverse in its moods and its ups and downs. The pic may not be a dog, but nor is it likely to become anyone’s best friend. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesJohn HartlJun 30, 2016
The casting was spot-on in “Dollhouse”; here it seems haphazard. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 23, 2016
What happens to the film's title character — and the audience — shouldn't happen to a dog. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedJun 23, 2016
It shouldn’t happen to a dog — or to an audience of dog lovers. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineClayton DillardJun 21, 2016
The film's back half nearly goes completely astray with two segments featuring unimaginative characterizations and tepid, mean-spirited scenarios. Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJun 23, 2016
In Wiener-Dog, Solondz just keeps telling the same dark joke over and over again—and it just keeps getting less and less funny. It’s a dog. Read full review
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